Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Hidden Experiences and Unknown Countries... (UAP update)

"Most every night I have a dream. One time I dreamed my toys came out of the closet and attacked me. Sometimes I can't believe how stuff like that gets in my mind."
- Mac Tonnies, from a third-grade class essay, found on this Hidden Experience page.

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"Space and dinosaurs are what I think about..." typed an eight-year old boy for his grade-school class assignment. Little did his teacher know when scribbling "Great Job! in the corner, that she (or he) may have been launching Mac Tonnies' future writing career.

But, then, we never really do know the types of impressions we leave on others... no more than we can predict the future nor truly replicate the past. And, most certainly, we've little to no control of the "stuff" that gets in our minds - our "dream" closets - or, for that matter, into the skies above our head. And, oddly enough, Mac's third grade musings would continue to intrigue him for the rest of his life. Space, monsters, dreams and analyzing the "stuff" which mysteriously entered his head was what he thought about - and wrote about - right up till 2009.

I noticed Mac's essay on Mike Clelland's site weeks ago and would've mentioned it here, but I've been focused on my other blog for the past month or so: tangled in a series of lengthy, convoluted "Frankenstein" posts. No, they're not about Mary Shelley's book, but they are, for me, monsters. I am not the effortless writer Mac was.

Meanwhile, Mike Clelland just happened to upload a short audio file on this Hidden Experience page yesterday you might enjoy. It was originally a subscriber-only feature Whitley Strieber offered on Unknown Country. It contains short portions from two of Mac's podcasts - Mac with Tim Binnall, and the other with George Noori on Coast to Coast (see sidebar list) - and the topics range from Mars to the Cryptoterrestrials. It was nice to hear Mac's voice again, so, thanks Mike!

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"The framework we present here is based on such an apparent contradiction, because we will argue that UAP (Unidentified Atmospheric Phenomena) can be thought of both as physical and as “psychic”. We hope that it will prove stimulating as a unified approach to a puzzling phenomenon that presents both undeniable physical effects suggesting a technological device or craft and psychic effects reminiscent of the literature on poltergeists and psychokinetic phenomena. Here we use the word “psychic” in the sense of an interaction between physical reality and human consciousness. The feeling of absurdity and contradiction in these two aspects is not worse than scientific puzzlement during the particle/wave or, more recently, quantum entanglement and multi- dimensional transport controversies. The contradiction has to do with the inadequacy of our language to grasp a phenomenon that defies our attempts at classification."
- Excerpt from Incommensurability, Orthodoxy and the Physics of High Strangeness: A 6-layer Model for Anomalous Phenomena (.pdf), 2003, Jacques F. Vallee and Eric W. Davis.

"The UFO Phenomenon exists. It has been with us throughout history. It is physical in nature and it remains unexplained in terms of contemporary science. It represents a level of consciousness that we have not yet recognized, and which is able to manipulate dimensions beyond time and space as we understand them."
- From Heretic Among Heretics: an Interview With Jacques Vallee - date unknown.

Bruce posted about UAPs numerous times, and frequently made reference to Vallee. On another post he featured Vallee's 2014 TED video, which I took the liberty of posting below. It can also be found on Vallee's website, along with information regarding his various publications, up to an including his fiction. For an earlier interview which may interest you, there's this one.

Very much like Mac and Bruce Duensing, Vallee is a soft-spoken and gracious man, with a life's mission devoted to mentally pursuing - and investigating - those anomalies which ultimately take us to places "no man has gone before". In the video above - A Theory of Everything (else) - Vallee discusses, at the end, several ideas close to my Transdimensionalist's heart. For instance, In his estimation, we create our dimensions and, therefore, the mathematical concept of dimension is a "cultural artifact".

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"Researchers with the University of Cambridge say they have the first real evidence of a new state of matter, some 40 years after it was first theorized.

Known as “quantum spin liquid,” the matter states causes normally unbreakable electrons to fracture into pieces, called “Majorana fermions.” These fermions are an important discovery: Physicists believe the material is crucial to further develop quantum computing. Computers employing Majorana fermions would be able to carry out calculations beyond the scope of modern computers quickly, they say.

Quantum spin liquid explains some of the odd behaviors inside magnetic materials. In these materials, the electrons should behave like small bar magnets, all aligning towards magnetic north when a material is cooled. But not all magnetic materials do this — if the material contains quantum spin liquid, the electrons don’t all line up and become entangled."

And what does this mean for the world at large? Beats me. I found this news article yesterday and, at first, was quite intrigued. That is, until I saw the words: "quantum computing". Ah well, so much for modern science's investigative preoccupations limited only to advances related to technology. Is there nothing else? I can't help but feel that the current trend of creating more (and more) devices contains within it a distressing element of disaster.* Call me old-fashioned, but, might these devices be the "toys" in humanity's dream closet... the sort which attack little boys at night?

Okay, I guess, in that respect, I'm a virtual dinosaur... and we know what happened to them. ;-)

*For an interesting take on this subject, see Jacques Vallee's 2013 TED talk - The Age of Impossible, Anticipating Discontinuous Futures - on his webpage.

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Just for the Record: Since moving to New Mexico a year and a half ago, I've had a few UAP sightings in the deserted plains behind my house. And, no, I've never seen any major anomalies before (except perhaps once in CT in the early days of this century). Of course, the major problem with UAP sightings is this: if you don't have any way of documenting them at your immediate disposal, they tend drift right out of your memory banks. Then again, in New Mexico there are several not-so-anomalous explanations; and I quote:

"Many of the federal jobs relate to the military; the state hosts three air force bases (Kirtland Air Force Base, Holloman Air Force Base, and Cannon Air Force Base); a testing range (White Sands Missile Range); and an army proving ground and maneuver range (Fort Bliss – McGregor Range). A May 2005 estimate by New Mexico State University is that 11.65% of the state's total employment arises directly or indirectly from military spending. Other federal installations include the technology labs of Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories."

The most stunning example I saw one night, was what I first thought was a stationary, reddish star. It seemed to be pulsating as if becoming a nova, and I thought to myself: "why is it I haven't heard of this particular dying star before when it is, in fact, so visible to the eye?"

I watched it from the open window for several minutes, and then returned to whatever business I'd been doing before. It was, perhaps, 10 or 15 minutes later I went outdoors to look at it again. It was still pulsating dimly in the same place in the sky. But, then, minutes later, it suddenly flared up much brighter. Moreover, it began to move very slowly upwards - very high, actually - until my last sight of it was when it flew silently over my house!

You know, the thing is, I've seen similar "twinkling stars" in the sky since then - which also suddenly become mobile - although none were quite as amazing as the first. But, I'll tell you this, the anomalousness of the UAP does not quite cause you to react in ways you might expect. For one thing, it's slightly menacing... and not in a way I can explain. And, because it's something you can't quite wrap your head around, your largest urge is to push its memory out of your memory banks forever!

Like I said, just for the record.

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UAP or UAV?

AltiGator civil drone OnyxStar Fox-C8 XT in flight

April 21, 2016

I've decided to keep a "red star" log here about this particular sort of UAP sighting (recorded above) because I saw this anomaly again last night.

I was driving home from a late night shopping trip, when I saw the reddish star traveling south very slowly in the sky. I immediately suspected it might be the "star" because of its dull color. It doesn't have the bright red color as the lights on other airborne vehicles.

Anyway, I kept an eye on it as I was driving along, when suddenly it just stopped... appearing, once again, like a twinkling reddish star in the sky. And, I thought to myself "How much you want to make a bet, it's parked in the sky behind my house again?" Sure enough, when I got home and looked out the widow, there it was. It remained stationary for a short while, but then began moving around - back and forth - in the same general area. The thing is, its movements, although erratic, reminded me of a bird or insect flitting from one area to another as if searching for something.

I kept checking on it for a period of about two hours. The last time I saw it, the object had moved closer to the horizon before eventually vanishing.

"A UAV is defined as a "powered, aerial vehicle that does not carry a human operator, uses aerodynamic forces to provide vehicle lift, can fly autonomously or be piloted remotely, can be expendable or recoverable, and can carry a lethal or nonlethal payload."

In any case, I didn't feel there was anything menacing about it this time... Despite it being in an area behind my house, I became quite sure it was nothing "personal". It appears to be interested in the area itself.

Incidentally, I've neglected to mention one important detail: the object makes no sound. Do drones make an audible sound?

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BTW, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the latest loss in the musical world... so, vale, Prince!

Thanks for stopping by BG. Actually, I'm going to put up one last UAP update fairly soon... "last" because there's no point in trying to describe them without some video footage. But, the situation has gotten stranger. There's more of them now. Tonight I counted five. I don't think they're drones. Stay tuned.

The PMB Slideshow

As of September 29, 2016, Google discontinued its support for its slideshow gadget, so, sadly, the slideshow which previously appeared here has been disabled. The slideshow photos, however, can be found by clicking Mac's "Alien Touch" self-portrait above.

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The Mark Twain, Kansas City, MO

"Flocks of teenagers materializing like thought-forms borne on the cool night air. An edge of autumn -- brisk but not cold. The Cancer Survivors' Park like an apocalyptic oracle, its touch-activated television screen locked against the encroaching chill, its statues frozen copper silhouettes.

A couple making out in the passenger side of a new Porsche; I glide by clutching my coffee, libido twitching sullenly somewhere in my skull. I find myself rediscovering a close-knit labyrinth of fountains and staircases and charming apartment buildings named after long-dead writers. The lights of Saturday traffic and gaudy horse-drawn carriages are mercifully eclipsed. The world is all shadowed architecture, suddenly shattered as I reenter the realm of the living, coffee cooling steadily. The usual anonymous hordes and casual lovers refracted through caffeinated synapses.

I buy a smoothie at a coffeeshop (Depeche Mode playing in the background) and gradually lose myself in John Brunner's "The Shockwave Rider." The immaculate sidewalks, sparkling as if pregnant with diamond, steer me home, past hotels, across the dark scabrous flow of Brush Creek. My apartment building has a new entry keypad, sans telephone handset. Made of reinforced stainless steel, it has the worrying appearance of something designed to survive an imminent nuclear attack.

Through the abandoned lobby with its fading pink carpet and neatly arranged couches.

Hot Rain

Nexxi

"She might have had an identity once. Or at least the synthetic equivalent. But years have passed; entropy haunts the labored rhythm of her stride, the flow of her thoughts. All the sidewalks look the same, an endless montage that recedes to eggshell anonymity in the summer glow..."

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"Out Strolling"

Mac Tonnies, 2009

Mac's Calling Cards:

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"If an alien intelligence is accountable for even a small degree of our collective preoccupation with the "other," it's conceivable that we have, in fact, established a dialogue of sorts. Maybe we're being taught a new mythological syntax so that, confronted with the specter of planetary disaster, we'll have the means of rising to the challenge."

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Tatiana

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A Transdimensional View

A Transdimensional View

About "Araqinta"

As an artist, my "nom de plume" seems to change as time goes by, and I suspect it always will.. I previously signed my earlier graphic images as "Dia" with the year the image was completed, that is, when Mac was still alive, and I was contributing images to his blog, Posthuman Blues. At the same time, I referred to my digital "workshop" as Araqinta... after a fictional planet I invented for an unfinished sci-fi novel of mine: A Matter of Increments. (The image above was an attempt at "branding"...) My online name during this period was "Zindra", also harkening back to a fictional planet I invented for yet another sci-fi story... also unfinished. (Do we see a pattern here?)

That being said, Mac Tonnies was a real inspiration to me in those days - a type of muse, if you will... and many of the images I created from 2006-2009 probably wouldn't have existed without his influence. Needless to say, many of them wound up on PHB... some of which appear in the body of this blog, and on the sidebar, linked to the PHB pages on which they can be found.

I was an artist for many years before approaching the digital medium; I don't know if I would have ever really fully taken that plunge without Mac's encouragement. And, in some strange sense - and I know I'm not alone in this - Mac continues to be the presiding spirit over much of my work. So, this blog was created for Mac and in his memory, but it also serves as a monument to our friendship - that magical series of synchronistic events that enables two individual psyches to cross the barriers of time, space, and sociological conditioning, and inevitably create a unique bond... a safe haven unaltered by any circumstance, including the illusion of death.